The fans, in the throes of a miserable season in 1968, exercised their frustration by throwing snowballs at a teenager dressed as Santa Claus during a halftime performance. Fifty years later, players donned dog masks after their NFC divisional-round playoff victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Jan. 13, a shot at those labeling the conference's No. 1 seed as a longshot underdog once its second-year quarterback, Carson Wentz, was lost for the rest of the season in December because of a knee injury.

So it's no surprise that folks in Philadelphia took umbrage with comments made by Broncos cornerback Chris Harris after the Eagles blasted Denver 51-23 on Nov. 5.

"They run this college offense," Harris said.

Those five words spread rapidly through social media. The implication, some Eagles fans believed, was that Philadelphia ran a gimmicky offense based on trick formations, exotic schemes and general subterfuge.

But the reality is Harris was heaping praise upon an offense that had taken the latest emergence of spread concepts — yes, those used widely by college teams — to another level. Even without Wentz, the Eagles have continued to hum with an offense riddled with spread concepts. Those formations and plays — designed to create mismatches by isolating individual defenders and forcing them into difficult choices — are a major reason the Eagles will be playing the New England Patriots in a matchup of 15-3 teams in Super Bowl LII next Sunday.

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And if quarterback Nick Foles can continue to excel as the substitute conductor of that offense like he did during a 38-7 demolition of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game last week, those concepts may just help Philadelphia prevent the Patriots from adding yet another title chapter to their dynastic history.

It's an offense, Patriots coach Bill Belichick told reporters, that forces defenses "to defend every blade of grass." And it just may be taking over the NFL.

Getting a front-row seat

The Eagles weren't the only team in the NFL to feature spread-offense concepts this season. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs were among playoff teams that also found success with such an attack. And almost every team has some spread concepts. But no team merged those philosophies with that of a standard pro-style attack more effectively than Philadelphia, as Denver found out firsthand.

The staple of the spread offense being used in the NFL is the run-pass option — RPO, as coaches and broadcasters shorthand it. The basic tenet of the play is that it gives a quarterback several decisions to make based on how a defense reacts.

In the run-pass option, a running back usually is lined up to the side of the quarterback rather than directly behind him. At the snap, the running back typically moves horizontally along the line of scrimmage. That gives pause to defenders covering the edge of the field. On one side, the running back may take the handoff and sprint to the edge. But defenders on the other side of the field must be aware of the quarterback faking a handoff and running toward the other edge.

But the ability to pass out of that play adds another element that can often break a defense. A play in the first quarter of the Broncos' loss to the Eagles perfectly illustrated the conundrum a defense faces in defending the spread. Philadelphia was at Denver's 32-yard line when Wentz took a snap out of the shotgun with running back Jay Ajayi to his right. At the snap, Ajayi moved left to take the ball from Wentz.

As Ajayi moved toward the ball, Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib, who was covering wide receiver Alshon Jeffery on the outside of the formation, briefly froze as he stared into the backfield at the exchange. He was wary of Wentz keeping the ball and running his way. Wentz did in fact fake the handoff, but Talib's split-second pause to confirm that action was all Jeffery needed to sprint behind the all-pro corner. Wentz simply had to shuffle to his right and float a pass for a 32-yard touchdown.

The Eagles put the Vikings in similarly compromising positions last week. Foles used his athleticism and fakes to create easy throwing lanes. For Minnesota, defending the spread was like reading a choose-your-own-adventure book and realizing a demise existed at the end of nearly every chapter.

A Broncos awakening?

As the Broncos observed and instructed the latest grasp of NFL draft hopefuls at Senior Bowl workouts in Mobile, Ala., last week — most of them the products of some form of spread offense in college — they hinted at philosophical alterations in how they will develop offensive players going forward, particularly quarterbacks.

"In my opinion, we have to take what those guys do best and kind of put it in our plan," said Denver head coach Vance Joseph. "We can't watch those guys on tape for four or five months and then draft those guys and ask them to do different things. What they do best, we have to do with those guys. Obviously you want to be under center some, but if they are a spread guy, we have to implement spread concepts for those guys to be successful on our level."

Such an approach would be a departure from how the Broncos have operated in recent seasons. Even when playing 2016 first-round draft pick Paxton Lynch, who operated almost exclusively out of the spread while at Memphis, the coaching staff put a limited amount of run-pass option or other spread plays into the game plan.

But the success of the Eagles and other teams this season while heavily incorporating spread concepts has pulled the Broncos, and other teams, back toward the drawing board. It's time to send their offenses back to college, at least part time.

"You watch Philly (and you see) we have to evolve as coaches, also," Joseph said recently. "Take these kids' skill sets and put them to work. So what we see in these players that we love, we have to apply to our game.

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